Related papers: The chemical evolution of galaxies with a variable…
This chapter reviews how galactic inflows influence galaxy metallicity. The goal is to discuss predictions from theoretical models, but particular emphasis is placed on the insights that result from using models to interpret observations.…
The hypothesis of a universal initial mass function (IMF) -- motivated by observations in nearby stellar systems -- has been recently challenged by the discovery of a systematic variation of the IMF with the central velocity dispersion,…
In search for a synthetic understanding, a scenario for the evolution of the star formation rate and the chemical abundances in galaxies is proposed, combining gas infall from galactic halos, outflow of gas by supernova explosions, and an…
We model the star formation history (SFH) and the chemical evolution of the Galactic disk by combining an infall model and a limit-cycle model of the interstellar medium (ISM). Recent observations have shown that the SFH of the Galactic…
We study the metallicities and abundance ratios of early-type galaxies in cosmological semi-analytic models (SAMs) within the hierarchical galaxy formation paradigm. To achieve this we implemented a detailed galactic chemical evolution…
The first supernovae enrich the previously pristine gas with metals, out of which the next generation of stars form. Based on hydrodynamical simulations, we develop a new stochastic model to predict the metallicity of star-forming gas in…
An essential component of galaxy formation theory is the stellar initial mass function (IMF), that describes the parent distribution of stellar mass in star forming regions. We present observational evidence in a sample of early-type…
By means of chemical evolution models for ellipticals, spirals and irregular galaxies, we aim at investigating the physical meaning and the redshift evolution of the mass-metallicity relation as well as how this relation is connected with…
When star clusters are formed at low star-formation rates (SFRs), their stellar initial mass function (IMF) can hardly be filled continuously with stars at each mass. This lack holds for massive stars and is observationally verified by the…
Star formation in the early Universe has left its imprint on the chemistry of observable stars in galaxies. We derive elemental abundances and the slope of the low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) for a sample of 25 very massive…
The GalICS (Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations) semi-analytical model of hierar- chical galaxy formation is used to investigate the effects of different galactic properties, including star formation rate (SFR) and outflows, on the shape…
The chemical abundances measured in stars of the Galactic bulge offer an unique opportunity to test galaxy formation models as well as impose strong constraints on the history of star formation and stellar nucleosynthesis. The aims of this…
We present an integrated study of star formation and galactic stellar mass assembly from z=0.05-1.5 and galactic metallicity evolution from z=0.05-0.9 using a very large and highly spectroscopically complete sample selected by rest-frame…
We present multi-wavelength imaging and near-IR spectroscopy for ten gravitationally lensed galaxies at 0.9<z<2.5 selected from a new, large sample of strong lens systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7. We derive stellar masses…
Stars form in embedded star clusters which play a key role in determining the properties of a galaxy's stellar population. Physical mechanisms discussed in this paper are runaway stars shot out from young clusters, binary-star disruption in…
The evolution of the metal content of galaxies and its relations to other global properties [such as total stellar mass (M*), circular velocity, star formation rate (SFR), halo mass, etc.] provides important constraints on models of galaxy…
The distribution of stellar masses that form in one star-formation event in a given volume of space is called the initial mass function (IMF). The IMF has been estimated from low-mass brown dwarfs to very massive stars. Combining IMF…
Metallicity appears to be one the most important tool to study formation and evolution of galaxies. Recently, we have shown that metallicity of local galaxies is tightly related not only to stellar mass, but also to star formation rate…
The Initial Mass Function (IMF) of early-type galaxies (ETGs) has been found to feature systematic variations by both dynamical and spectroscopic studies. In particular, spectral line strengths, based on gravity-sensitive features, suggest…
We combine star-formation histories derived from observations of high redshift galaxies with measurements of the z~0 relation between gas-phase metallicity, stellar mass, and star formation rate to make an explicit and completely empirical…